The Slug & Lettuce

I’ve been to a number of Slug and Lettuce venues around Manchester. I like this one as it has table service, nice décor, alfresco dining and friendly staff. I came here for the 50% off on Mondays and it was busy with people of all ages and various groups.
What I like about this place is that it is incredibly cheap but feels a lot more upmarket than a weatherspoons or other chain pub.

When I spent an evening in Didsbury’s Slug and Lettuce, it was a Thursday evening and my ex-​boss purchased two bottles of champers for us all. We’d just eaten at Casa Tapas and were finishing the evening in style, and I have to say for a first trip to this chain I was pleasantly surprised. This encompasses just the right amount of class and retail, although I think Kirsten must have caught it on one of the worst nights!
When we were there the clientele were mainly after-​work commuters and local artsy types settling down to a nice unwinding drink, and we were probably the most raucous in there. Well, especially when Jagerbombs came into the equation. You can’t deny that Didsbury’s leafy suburbs make this bar even nicer, as there’s nothing quite like wandering into somewhere on a fresh spring day and having a few cheeky beverages, especially if you’re surrounded by trees.
It might not be anything special, but this Slug’s well set out, tastefully decorated and perfectly located. Can’t really ask more than that I suppose!

I’m on Lauren’s side here, except on the name front.
I like The Slug & Lettuce, and I like the name Slug and Lettuce. Its obviously referring to cute little slug, with a nice little face, enjoying himself on a piece of lettuce that you’d want him to have, so that your mum doesn’t make you eat it.
What’s great about The Slug & Lettuce, apart from its name, is that its got the classyness of other chain bars for young professionals such as All Bar One and Pitcher and Piano, but its considerably cheaper. Cocktails start from £3.75 and you can get a pitcher for less than a tenner. These aren’t rubbish excuses for cocktails like those sold at Font, but are well made, with a double shoot of alcohol and very tasty indeed.
Depending on what you have, its actually closer to Wetherspoons prices than it is to All Bar One, and its literally just as nice as All Bar One in side.
The food is decent too. Great place for pre-​drinking.

I was invited to this venue for a friend’s birthday one Friday night, so it should have been a good night. However, it was ruined by hoards of girls (no, I can’t call them girls, they were 35-​year-​olds plus) prancing around in bunny outfits, very loud and equally terrible music and (probably) the most expensive drinks prices in Didsbury. It was too loud to talk, yet no-​one was dancing. As much as I forced myself to try and enjoy my evening, I just couldn’t get into the sluggy spirit (whose idea was it to include the name of a slimy invertebrate in the name of a trendy chain?)
I’ll be generous and give this place a couple of stars based on another occasion when I visited for a relatively pleasant quiet drink with a friend on a weeknight, and I saw Fizz from Corrie in there. Any night where I can tick another Corrie star off my list counts as a good night for me. I admit it, I’m very sad (you should have seen how happy I was when I bumped into Kirk on a night out!)
I should probably note that my rating is based on my drinking and celeb-​spotting experiences only, and not on the food on offer here, which my friends assure me is tasty and filling.

This is one of many Slug & Lettuce pubs dotted around Manchester. There is a good range of food and drinks and the bar is quite stylish with a terrace and nice outside seating area.
The food is gorgeous. The menu has a bit of everything on it. It costs a few quid more than the other bars down the road but the quality is there so its worth paying for. Look out for offers on the internet, you can often get meals on two for one deals especially during the week.
There is a great range of drinks, I’m no wine expert but my wine loving mate thinks its one of the best wine lists in Didsbury. I’m quite partial to the cocktails especially the fabulous cosmopolitan.
During the week its quiet but it comes alive at the weekend. Friday and Saturday nights are quite lively and its an essential part of a Didsbury night out.

A fairly same-​ish pub which doesn’t provide much of an atmosphere. If you go on a weekend night the crowd can sometimes be a bit ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ and the place seems somewhat souless.
However I would recommend as a really nice clean and well decorated place to go for a late lunch or afternoon hangout. The food is good and reasonably priced and if you grab a sofa then you have a comfy spot to spend the rest of the afternoon. The chairs outside make for a sunny spot to sit with a glass of pims in the summer, and a prime spot to watch the people of Didsbury go by.

Slut and Lettuces are all the same, which is a good and bad thing. This one does tend to lack atmosphere, and it is far too big for the number of people normally there. However, the staff are helpful and friendly and the general atmosphere is perfectly pleasant. The real reason to go to Slug and Lettuce is to take advantage of the offers when they occur, particularly the half priced food on Mondays (this includes desserts, which are 2−4−1 the rest of the the time). The food is as good as you can get for the money, so a trip on a Monday is worthwhile. There are also offers on champagne on Wednesdays and wine throughout the week. It’s a chain pub, but it’s worth a look.

The Slug and Lettuce is fairly run of the mill and it seems a shame to go to a chain restaurant in an area where there are quite a few gorgeous independent places. However, that said The Slug does offer well-​priced food and good service. I found the staff to be helpful and friendly, and the food to be good.
It is on the larger side of venues and on a quiet afternoon it can feel a little too big. The windows don’t look out on the best view, the main road, and there isn’t too much atmosphere to speak of. I also found parking near this place a little difficult to find.
So an ok venue, in a place where there are many better ones. You decide!

Sometimes these places aren’t so bad on the odd quiet afternoon, with a paper, a pint and very standard morsels to soon occupy your stomach. That’s possibly in the absence of a decent pub in the close vicinity (which isn’t an excuse in Didsbury). This Slug (there are several more in Manchester) forms part of the new build of clinical chains that landed on Didsbury a few years ago. Market forces, supply and demand and Didsbury cannot complain for having these take up shop. The likes of Café Rouge, Hog’s Head and GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) all reside on the strip next to O’Neils. Admittedly during the warm, summer months these dens of liquidity slap a bit of life art to the streets in the evenings whilst in the day, the mom’s and pop’s are out doing themselves off with lunch, with their Audi child buggies parked up close to their Gant chino’s.
The lager was cold and wet with a controversial fizz to it’s underbelly. The chips were warm and chippy, but my stomach wasn’t in the mind for anything slightly more nourishing at the time. Quick pint, browse of a daily newspaper and a quick game of people watching (although it’s considered to be unsporting to use binoculars these days) and I was out of there before the trainee accountants and flush students arrived.
Bar staff were friendly and helpful enough, but this is only really a pretend pub run elsewhere by mitten faced excel users.